Cycle of Life

[Treefer32]

This is going to be a mix of things post. I'll try to break it up as much as possible. First, my 340 gallon mixed reef has been running about 6 years. I had set it up in October, added fish in December, and lost 15 fish in June 6 years ago. The heater leaked electricity and I saw every disease come out of the wood work. Popeye, flukes, bruising / burn marks. I had one fish survive (still alive today). I waited about 8 months having 1 fish in 340 gallons. I was on the virge of tearing down, but couldn't do it. Since then I've gotten up to 25 fish, had to remove a few due to unwanted behaviors etc.

Well, recently, while I was gone, my alk dosing line got clogged. My alk dropped from an average of 8.3-8.5 down to 5.8 dkh (+/- Margin of error).

I did some research and found that 6 dkh can be stressful if not toxic to fish. (OOps!) My corals were unaffected and so far remain unaffected even after raising it slowly back up to 8-9. (2 days ago tested at 8.9 dkh)

However, my caribbean blue tang got a massive infection of Ich or flukes. Not sure which, Lots of white things hanging off both sides of its body. They started falling off and had mucus like substance as they slowly fell off over a period of days. The infection occurred with 24-48 hours after raising gradually raising my alk from 5.8 to 6.4 to 7.1 then slowly up to 8 and now 8.9. Raising it no more than .5 to 1dkh per 24 hour period.

Now my black tang has concentrated circular patterns of white dots around a couple areas of his body. They slowly are stringing off too the same as the blue tang.

My male and female lyretail anthia just died and had no spots. I had a caribbean blue chromis almost the same age as the lyretails that also just died in the last week. 3 out of 18-19 fish just passed.

I had the male and female Lyretail for almost 2.5 to 3 years. I don't know how old they were when I got them. The Caribean blue chromis was closer to 3-4 years that I had him. He was part of a group of 5 that gradually died off. With 1-2 dieing per year and months apart of each other. I thought it was natural infighting of chromises. This last one lasted an entire year after all his friends died.

With multiple things going I read about fish life spans as well. Lyretails live on average 3 to 5 years it seems. If I had them 2.5 to 3 years, and they were already 1-2 years old when I got them? Would this be natural causes? Or would the alk fluctuations have caused them to die off as well? Just trying to figure out if there's other issues or if I'm dealing with the after effects of the alk drop? No knee jerk reactions!

I have much more sensitive fish that are doing fine (so far), a 3 year old bellus Angel fish, Lamarck's angelfish, Swallow tail angelfish, all 3 showing no signs of infection or distress. I have 3 tangs, all 3 showed some signs of something on their flesh and marks of where the stuff fell off, but all three are healing up nicely and eating voraciously.

When the alk dropped I noticed the most, that my caribbean blue tang was losing body mass rapidly, thinning up and parts of his skeleton being more visible than usual. (He was thankfully a fat tang) I read that too low of alk can cause fish to lose body mass and bones to be more exposed and parts of their body becoming lumpy. I thought initially internal parasites for the weight loss and due to the infection on the outside. But, now that alk is stable again (about a week or so after the crash) the blue tang is gaining weight and looking normal. So, could all of the death and infections have simply been caused by alk hitting 5 dkh?

My alk dosing line got plugged while I was gone for 3 days. I use an average of 1dkh per day. Going from 8 to 5 in 3-4 days, is not surprising given the lack of dosing.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is going to be a mix of things post. I'll try to break it up as much as possible. First, my 340 gallon mixed reef has been running about 6 years. I had set it up in October, added fish in December, and lost 15 fish in June 6 years ago. The heater leaked electricity and I saw every disease come out of the wood work. Popeye, flukes, bruising / burn marks. I had one fish survive (still alive today). I waited about 8 months having 1 fish in 340 gallons. I was on the virge of tearing down, but couldn't do it. Since then I've gotten up to 25 fish, had to remove a few due to unwanted behaviors etc.

Well, recently, while I was gone, my alk dosing line got clogged. My alk dropped from an average of 8.3-8.5 down to 5.8 dkh (+/- Margin of error).

I did some research and found that 6 dkh can be stressful if not toxic to fish. (OOps!) My corals were unaffected and so far remain unaffected even after raising it slowly back up to 8-9. (2 days ago tested at 8.9 dkh)

However, my caribbean blue tang got a massive infection of Ich or flukes. Not sure which, Lots of white things hanging off both sides of its body. They started falling off and had mucus like substance as they slowly fell off over a period of days. The infection occurred with 24-48 hours after raising gradually raising my alk from 5.8 to 6.4 to 7.1 then slowly up to 8 and now 8.9. Raising it no more than .5 to 1dkh per 24 hour period.

Now my black tang has concentrated circular patterns of white dots around a couple areas of his body. They slowly are stringing off too the same as the blue tang.

My male and female lyretail anthia just died and had no spots. I had a caribbean blue chromis almost the same age as the lyretails that also just died in the last week. 3 out of 18-19 fish just passed.

I had the male and female Lyretail for almost 2.5 to 3 years. I don't know how old they were when I got them. The Caribean blue chromis was closer to 3-4 years that I had him. He was part of a group of 5 that gradually died off. With 1-2 dieing per year and months apart of each other. I thought it was natural infighting of chromises. This last one lasted an entire year after all his friends died.

With multiple things going I read about fish life spans as well. Lyretails live on average 3 to 5 years it seems. If I had them 2.5 to 3 years, and they were already 1-2 years old when I got them? Would this be natural causes? Or would the alk fluctuations have caused them to die off as well? Just trying to figure out if there's other issues or if I'm dealing with the after effects of the alk drop? No knee jerk reactions!

I have much more sensitive fish that are doing fine (so far), a 3 year old bellus Angel fish, Lamarck's angelfish, Swallow tail angelfish, all 3 showing no signs of infection or distress. I have 3 tangs, all 3 showed some signs of something on their flesh and marks of where the stuff fell off, but all three are healing up nicely and eating voraciously.

When the alk dropped I noticed the most, that my caribbean blue tang was losing body mass rapidly, thinning up and parts of his skeleton being more visible than usual. (He was thankfully a fat tang) I read that too low of alk can cause fish to lose body mass and bones to be more exposed and parts of their body becoming lumpy. I thought initially internal parasites for the weight loss and due to the infection on the outside. But, now that alk is stable again (about a week or so after the crash) the blue tang is gaining weight and looking normal. So, could all of the death and infections have simply been caused by alk hitting 5 dkh?

My alk dosing line got plugged while I was gone for 3 days. I use an average of 1dkh per day. Going from 8 to 5 in 3-4 days, is not surprising given the lack of dosing.

Alk should not have been a cause but other chemistry or disease issues may have contributed

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is going to be a mix of things post. I'll try to break it up as much as possible. First, my 340 gallon mixed reef has been running about 6 years. I had set it up in October, added fish in December, and lost 15 fish in June 6 years ago. The heater leaked electricity and I saw every disease come out of the wood work. Popeye, flukes, bruising / burn marks. I had one fish survive (still alive today). I waited about 8 months having 1 fish in 340 gallons. I was on the virge of tearing down, but couldn't do it. Since then I've gotten up to 25 fish, had to remove a few due to unwanted behaviors etc.

Well, recently, while I was gone, my alk dosing line got clogged. My alk dropped from an average of 8.3-8.5 down to 5.8 dkh (+/- Margin of error).

I did some research and found that 6 dkh can be stressful if not toxic to fish. (OOps!) My corals were unaffected and so far remain unaffected even after raising it slowly back up to 8-9. (2 days ago tested at 8.9 dkh)

However, my caribbean blue tang got a massive infection of Ich or flukes. Not sure which, Lots of white things hanging off both sides of its body. They started falling off and had mucus like substance as they slowly fell off over a period of days. The infection occurred with 24-48 hours after raising gradually raising my alk from 5.8 to 6.4 to 7.1 then slowly up to 8 and now 8.9. Raising it no more than .5 to 1dkh per 24 hour period.

Now my black tang has concentrated circular patterns of white dots around a couple areas of his body. They slowly are stringing off too the same as the blue tang.

My male and female lyretail anthia just died and had no spots. I had a caribbean blue chromis almost the same age as the lyretails that also just died in the last week. 3 out of 18-19 fish just passed.

I had the male and female Lyretail for almost 2.5 to 3 years. I don't know how old they were when I got them. The Caribean blue chromis was closer to 3-4 years that I had him. He was part of a group of 5 that gradually died off. With 1-2 dieing per year and months apart of each other. I thought it was natural infighting of chromises. This last one lasted an entire year after all his friends died.

With multiple things going I read about fish life spans as well. Lyretails live on average 3 to 5 years it seems. If I had them 2.5 to 3 years, and they were already 1-2 years old when I got them? Would this be natural causes? Or would the alk fluctuations have caused them to die off as well? Just trying to figure out if there's other issues or if I'm dealing with the after effects of the alk drop? No knee jerk reactions!

I have much more sensitive fish that are doing fine (so far), a 3 year old bellus Angel fish, Lamarck's angelfish, Swallow tail angelfish, all 3 showing no signs of infection or distress. I have 3 tangs, all 3 showed some signs of something on their flesh and marks of where the stuff fell off, but all three are healing up nicely and eating voraciously.

When the alk dropped I noticed the most, that my caribbean blue tang was losing body mass rapidly, thinning up and parts of his skeleton being more visible than usual. (He was thankfully a fat tang) I read that too low of alk can cause fish to lose body mass and bones to be more exposed and parts of their body becoming lumpy. I thought initially internal parasites for the weight loss and due to the infection on the outside. But, now that alk is stable again (about a week or so after the crash) the blue tang is gaining weight and looking normal. So, could all of the death and infections have simply been caused by alk hitting 5 dkh?

My alk dosing line got plugged while I was gone for 3 days. I use an average of 1dkh per day. Going from 8 to 5 in 3-4 days, is not surprising given the lack of dosing.

Please provide pics and even video of fish especially with dots you mentioned

 

[Treefer32]

Here some pics of black tang. He looks worse than I thought but swimming and eating great so far. Hoping he pulls through. I've had the black tang for 10 years. I've never seen him this way before, ever. So weird. I haven't added anything for a good solid 6-8 months.

Nitrates were around 10-15 - Phosphates .2 ppm, alk is around 8.9, salinity 1.025-1.026, Temp 76-79. I had one gyre no longer rotate for me so I removed that. Which has caused a build up of some cyano on one side of the tank. Other side of tank is cyano free (where the gyres are on full speed). I'm leaning towards flukes, but, not sure.

 

[Spare time]

Here some pics of black tang. He looks worse than I thought but swimming and eating great so far. Hoping he pulls through. I've had the black tang for 10 years. I've never seen him this way before, ever. So weird. I haven't added anything for a good solid 6-8 months.

Nitrates were around 10-15 - Phosphates .2 ppm, alk is around 8.9, salinity 1.025-1.026, Temp 76-79. I had one gyre no longer rotate for me so I removed that. Which has caused a build up of some cyano on one side of the tank. Other side of tank is cyano free (where the gyres are on full speed). I'm leaning towards flukes, but, not sure.

Im fairly confident that is velvet and possibly something else due to the cloudy eyes in the first pic

 

[Treefer32]

Cloudy eye is usually flukes but I don't know why flukes would suddenly explode

Im fairly confident that is velvet and possibly something else due to the cloudy eyes in the first pic

 

[Treefer32]

I thought velvet killed in hours. The blue tang was covered in white wormy things hanging on him (pretty much where you see the dusty white spots now) for the last week. The black tang has been this way about 2-3 days. Wouldn't Velvet have killed them like 3 days ago and wouldn't the whole tank be infected? Wouldn't nearly all the fish be dead by now (the end of this week will be a full 2 weeks that 1 or more fish showed signs of being sick or just up and died with no signs of being sick.)

 

[Spare time]

@Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal]

EDIT: I see that I wrote this yesterday, but it didn't get sent, not sure what I did wrong (grin).

+1, I’ve never seen low alkalinity cause acute problems with fish, the invertebrates would be affected first.

One issue that we see is cases where fish in a tank have flukes, but they compensate and don’t look sick - for months or even years. Then, a stress events come along and the fluke population jumps and the fish start to act sick and die.

Velvet causes rapid breathing and fish stop feeding and then die in a day or two.

The black tang may have mucus plugs, (probably mixed in with ich) but the blue tang certainly has an advanced case of ich.

Jay

 

[Treefer32]

Any recommendation for treatment? I feed pretty heavy my home made frozen food mixed with aminos and selcon. I soaked some nori in selcon today. Two sheets. Both are gone. The frozen I fed was eaten fairly quickly. I'll feed more often 2-3 times a day plus nori.

They all are still eating. I agree today the advanced ich is more prominent than yesterday on the blue tang. Hoping the feeding will help their slime coat heal and protect them. I'm planning to implement strong uv this winter with the right flow for protozoa management. It's unfortunate this happened before I could get it in place.

Would water changes help reduce populations in the water column? Or increase water quality in some way.

Or dosing prazipro. Which I don't like due to reduced oxygen levels when dosing. But if it could help and is necessary I have some.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Any recommendation for treatment? I feed pretty heavy my home made frozen food mixed with aminos and selcon. I soaked some nori in selcon today. Two sheets. Both are gone. The frozen I fed was eaten fairly quickly. I'll feed more often 2-3 times a day plus nori.

They all are still eating. I agree today the advanced ich is more prominent than yesterday on the blue tang. Hoping the feeding will help their slime coat heal and protect them. I'm planning to implement strong uv this winter with the right flow for protozoa management. It's unfortunate this happened before I could get it in place.

Would water changes help reduce populations in the water column? Or increase water quality in some way.

Or dosing prazipro. Which I don't like due to reduced oxygen levels when dosing. But if it could help and is necessary I have some.

Fish with ich will continue to feed for quite some time, up until they are close to death. Feeding them well, or managing water quality will NOT stop an ich infection when it reaches the moderate stage (as this looks to me). Prazipro has no benefit if this is ich. Even UV will unlikely stop the infection at this point.

I think you need to consider a more drastic treatment - moving all of the fish to a treatment tank and dosing with Coppersafe, or moving all of the invertebrates out of the tank and running the whole tank at hyposalinity (a specific gravity of 1.009).

Jay

 

[Treefer32]

I've tried it in the past with hyposalinity for 90 days. And half the fish I qt died in qt. Those that survived the 90 days and display fallow for 90 days got sick within 2 days of being added to the display. I religiously checked salinity daily and ammonia to ensure it remained zero. Maybe I screwed something up. But to spend 90 days only to have a fish get sick within a couple days of being in the display was completely devastating. I gave up on qt Ever since. My fish are too large. This blue tang alone is 10-12" in diameter. Any it tank for 70-90 days would kill him he definitely needs and wants space. I question if my 340 gallon is big enough for him. Plus the other 15 medium to large fish. I'd need 10 qt tanks. Wish there were better options.

 

[Spare time]

You don't need a tank for qt. You can easily just use bins from home Depot or something. You also might want to re evaluate how the qt was set up if half the fish died (we can give tips if you'd like).

 

[Treefer32]

I don't know that there's a bin large enough for a 10-12" fish that needs swimming space. I'm afraid placing him in a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tub for 70-90 days would be too confining for him when a 6 ft long by 3 ft wide tank is bordering on insufficient space. Many of my angels are also larger in size -5-8" Plus 2 other tangs that are each 6-8" in size. I guess, if he doesn't die in a confined space that's more of a chance than he may have now, which it sounds may be 99.99% mortality likelihood.

If QT drops the mortality rate to 75% instead of 99.9%. That's a thought.

The challenge comes in on what the impact of confined space of QT (Tub, tank, and filtration activities) is on the mortality rate. Maybe QT gives the fish a 50% chance of surviving (hyposalinity or copper treatment). However, due to the stress of confined space, that adds stress and raises the mortality rate by 25, 30, or 40%. That changes the 50% chance of survival to 75, 80, 90% mortality chance.

99.9% vs. 90% death rate with margins of error (both human and natural considerations)

is the .1% chance of survival as is, a better chance than in a QT environment for an extended period?
With my day job, and upcoming travel requirements I don't have anyone that could monitor QT sufficiently that I would trust the fish to survive. It would need to be tested at least once daily and oxygenated and daily attention that I don't have capacity to take on at this point.

I've checked with LFS's as well, and they don't have anything large enough to QT the size of fish I have.

The downside of larger tank systems, larger fish equals much harder support to treat / QT large fish.

Sorry, I'm defeated. I haven't added anything for over 6 months. Letting the tank ride this spring and summer. I removed a couple fish that I donated to a commercial facility (They needed larger tanks Had grown to be 14" long). I'm on the fence on just seeing what happens with the fish and if I lose them, just going coral only for a couple years while I decide whether to tear it down.

 

[Spare time]

I don't know that there's a bin large enough for a 10-12" fish that needs swimming space. I'm afraid placing him in a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tub for 70-90 days would be too confining for him when a 6 ft long by 3 ft wide tank is bordering on insufficient space. Many of my angels are also larger in size -5-8" Plus 2 other tangs that are each 6-8" in size. I guess, if he doesn't die in a confined space that's more of a chance than he may have now, which it sounds may be 99.99% mortality likelihood.

If QT drops the mortality rate to 75% instead of 99.9%. That's a thought.

The challenge comes in on what the impact of confined space of QT (Tub, tank, and filtration activities) is on the mortality rate. Maybe QT gives the fish a 50% chance of surviving (hyposalinity or copper treatment). However, due to the stress of confined space, that adds stress and raises the mortality rate by 25, 30, or 40%. That changes the 50% chance of survival to 75, 80, 90% mortality chance.

99.9% vs. 90% death rate with margins of error (both human and natural considerations)

is the .1% chance of survival as is, a better chance than in a QT environment for an extended period?
With my day job, and upcoming travel requirements I don't have anyone that could monitor QT sufficiently that I would trust the fish to survive. It would need to be tested at least once daily and oxygenated and daily attention that I don't have capacity to take on at this point.

I've checked with LFS's as well, and they don't have anything large enough to QT the size of fish I have.

The downside of larger tank systems, larger fish equals much harder support to treat / QT large fish.

Sorry, I'm defeated. I haven't added anything for over 6 months. Letting the tank ride this spring and summer. I removed a couple fish that I donated to a commercial facility (They needed larger tanks Had grown to be 14" long). I'm on the fence on just seeing what happens with the fish and if I lose them, just going coral only for a couple years while I decide whether to tear it down.

I think in this case, the best thing to do would be to run copper in the display system, and move the corals and rocks and other inverts into bins (EDIT: Or as Jay mentioned and I forgot, do hypo in the display and keep the rocks in there). You would put a bunch of pvc pipes or plastic decorations in the tank for hiding spots. You would remove the sand too. An absolute last resort would be to get an oversized UV sterilizer, siphoning the sand frequently to try and clear out some of the cyst stage ich, and then use prazi in the display tank at the end (prazi is fine with corals and inverts). You would do this assuming that the UV won't do anything but there is a chance it could slightly lessen the parasite load. Again, the suggestion at the top of this paragraph would be best in my opinion.



EDIT: Jay's hypo is definitely a nicer way of going about thigs if you want to use the rocks and sand again.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I think in this case, the best thing to do would be to run copper in the display system, and move the corals and rocks and other inverts into bins. You would put a bunch of pvc pipes or plastic decorations in the tank for hiding spots. You would remove the sand too. An absolute last resort would be to get an oversized UV sterilizer just for the hell of it and then use prazi in the display tank (prazi is fine with corals and inverts). You would do this assuming that the UV won't work.

If the OP did that, but ran the DT in hypo, it would keep the sand and rocks copper free for future use. The hypo would also handle both ich and flukes. It won't help if the issue is velvet, but I'm not thinking that is it here.....

Jay

 

[Spare time]

If the OP did that, but ran the DT in hypo, it would keep the sand and rocks copper free for future use. The hypo would also handle both ich and flukes. It won't help if the issue is velvet, but I'm not thinking that is it here.....

Jay

Thanks I completely forgot about hypo for a minute there

 

[Treefer32]

Thinking "out loud" heh, Hypo would require removal of all corals and rocks with corals. Wouldn't hypo kill all inverts? Worms of any type. Anything buried in a rock or sand bed anywhere? My bristleworm population is slightly out of hand (probably due to overfeeding). At night my sand bed and rocks are moving with bristle worms (another potential reason fish have injuries).

I'm curious on when ich (assuming that's the blue tangs plague) how long does ich take to kill? I've never had ich visibly kill a fish. (A fish covered in ich that died.) the anthias that died had no visible signs of ich up to and post death. So, just trying to determine a timer if you will? This big blue tang when he dies is large enough to probably cause a nice little spike if I don't get him out right away, and bristle worms will devour him in 24 hours once dead. Or what would be signs of recovery if he pulls through? Flesh clearing up and / or living past the next 2-3 weeks? Or there's a strong chance if nothing is done he should be dead in 2-3 days?

My black tang appears to be recovering, the nodules across his sides have become much less prominent, still has patchy flesh. My mimick tang looked weird yesterday. His sides had lost pigment. He went from yellow with brown trimming (had fully transitioned) and yesterday lost almost all pigment in his sides. No signs of ich, but became an albino tang.

I'm starting to wonder if I have stray voltage again. The random symptoms are all over the place, nodules, possible flukes, random injuries, ich, and now pigment loss.. Corals are unaffected, they're doing great. One of my acros that has receded about a year back grew three new branches in the last couple of months. Euphelia are all growing new heads and staying bushy. My gonipora are continuing to grow better than ever. Turbo Snails and even an abelone snail appear fine.

With the latest symptom being nearly complete pigment lost of it's skin? What does that mean? Another bacterial infection or something worse?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thinking "out loud" heh, Hypo would require removal of all corals and rocks with corals. Wouldn't hypo kill all inverts? Worms of any type. Anything buried in a rock or sand bed anywhere? My bristleworm population is slightly out of hand (probably due to overfeeding). At night my sand bed and rocks are moving with bristle worms (another potential reason fish have injuries).

I'm curious on when ich (assuming that's the blue tangs plague) how long does ich take to kill? I've never had ich visibly kill a fish. (A fish covered in ich that died.) the anthias that died had no visible signs of ich up to and post death. So, just trying to determine a timer if you will? This big blue tang when he dies is large enough to probably cause a nice little spike if I don't get him out right away, and bristle worms will devour him in 24 hours once dead. Or what would be signs of recovery if he pulls through? Flesh clearing up and / or living past the next 2-3 weeks? Or there's a strong chance if nothing is done he should be dead in 2-3 days?

My black tang appears to be recovering, the nodules across his sides have become much less prominent, still has patchy flesh. My mimick tang looked weird yesterday. His sides had lost pigment. He went from yellow with brown trimming (had fully transitioned) and yesterday lost almost all pigment in his sides. No signs of ich, but became an albino tang.

I'm starting to wonder if I have stray voltage again. The random symptoms are all over the place, nodules, possible flukes, random injuries, ich, and now pigment loss.. Corals are unaffected, they're doing great. One of my acros that has receded about a year back grew three new branches in the last couple of months. Euphelia are all growing new heads and staying bushy. My gonipora are continuing to grow better than ever. Turbo Snails and even an abelone snail appear fine.

With the latest symptom being nearly complete pigment lost of it's skin? What does that mean? Another bacterial infection or something worse?

Can you post a new picture and video of the blue and mimic tangs?

The problem is that "stray voltage" (inducing voltage, not actual short circuits) does not cause any harm to fish or invertebrates. Back in the day, it was blamed for causing head and Lateral Line Erosion. What happened was people had fish with HLLE, ran a voltage test, found a small AC current to ground, and blamed that. It has been proven not to have been causative. Unfortunately, the idea got carried over to just about every aquarium problem....

Myth: “Stray voltage” causes fish loss or health issues: This is a red herring, stray or induced voltage (typically < 50 VAC) has no measurable effect on aquarium fish, as they are not grounded, so there is no electrical potential. Stray voltage has been ruled out as a cause of HLLE. True electrical shorts can harm or kill fish, as well as people. All aquariums must be plugged into GFI circuits.

Jay

 

[Treefer32]

Can you post a new picture and video of the blue and mimic tangs?

The problem is that "stray voltage" (inducing voltage, not actual short circuits) does not cause any harm to fish or invertebrates. Back in the day, it was blamed for causing head and Lateral Line Erosion. What happened was people had fish with HLLE, ran a voltage test, found a small AC current to ground, and blamed that. It has been proven not to have been causative. Unfortunately, the idea got carried over to just about every aquarium problem....

Myth: “Stray voltage” causes fish loss or health issues: This is a red herring, stray or induced voltage (typically < 50 VAC) has no measurable effect on aquarium fish, as they are not grounded, so there is no electrical potential. Stray voltage has been ruled out as a cause of HLLE. True electrical shorts can harm or kill fish, as well as people. All aquariums must be plugged into GFI circuits.

Jay

Thanks Jay for the clarification. Unfortunately my aquarium was doomed from the start. I reused some equipment that had been in cold dry storage for 2 years. when I started my new 340 gallon. The equipment was in a storage unit, but temps got to -40 degrees outside. I didn't think anything of it, and reused my skimmer, some powerheads, and heaters.

I taken 3-5 months to ensure everything was running smoothly, cycled and ready to go for fish. Then started adding a few per week. My black tang had been stored at the LFS for 2 years until I could get the new tank setup. I took him back and was up to 15 fish, when like now, fish started dieing randomly. One day 1 fish would die, then 5-6 days later 2 died, then a few days later 3 more. And the deaths kept increasing, the final days were when a batch of cardinals all had popeye at the same time, then a powder blue tang erupted with raised nodules all over its body, then anthias had purple burn marks on them. My corals grew faster than ever. I had LPS and SPS that tripled in size in a month.

I talked to the owner of the LFS and he said, you know what, google electrified grates in the Atlantic ocean to repopulate reefs. I Searched it and discovered that it was scientifically proven that electrified metal cages were used to rapidly regrow dieing reefs.

He said get a volt meter or do it the old fashioned way and ground yourself and stick your hand in the sump. I Had had my hands in the tank many times never was shocked. He said, of course not, if you're not grounded you're not going to feel anything. So, I touched something I thought was grounded, my furnaces aluminum ventwork. And stuck my hand in the sump, my hair stood up on my head. I felt a slow vibration through my nerves. I wasn't sure if I imagined it, but, I turned everything off and did it again and felt nothing, then I turned things on one at at time and discovered one of my two heaters, when they were heating was electrifying the sump and the display.

Just to see the impact, I turned everything off and watched my last two remaining fish that were still alive and they seemed so much more at peace. I went back and turned the heater back on and went and watched the fish. My black tang, I kid you not, swam in circles repeatedly only making left turns. I went and turned the heater off and he swam normally.

I had a large fox face that survived the shocks as well, but he later jumped out. He went a bit crazy. I was so devastated that to save a couple hundred dollars I had destroyed several hundreds of dollars of life. I nearly gave up then too.

I left the tank with one fish in it, the black tang for about 8 months. No other infections, diseases, no signs of ich, nothing emerged. The fish swam and lived healthily and normally until now 6 years later. I bought brand new finnex heaters. Have had the same two heaters in there since then. I'm starting to wonder if they've reached the end of their life and causing this again the symptoms are very similar.

I'll get picks of the mimic tang.